Noah’s Ark: Dimensions, Animals, and Capacity

Genesis 6:15Genesis 6:15 · King James VersionAnd this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.Genesis 6:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source gives Noah’s ark three measures: 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, with three stories and a window and a door. The same chapter tells Noah to bring animals by kinds, and Genesis 7:2Genesis 7:2 · King James VersionOf every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.Genesis 7:2 · King James VersionOpen the Source sorts clean beasts by sevens and beasts that are not clean by twos. How large that vessel was in feet depends on which cubit is used. Whether a boat-shaped rock in Turkey is that vessel is a different claim, treated on Has Noah’s Ark Been Found?.

Key Points

• Genesis 6:14–16Genesis 6:14–16 · King James Version^6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. ^6:15 And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. ^6:16 A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.Genesis 6:14–16 · King James VersionOpen the Source names gopher wood, rooms, pitch inside and out, the three dimensions, a window, a door in the side, and lower, second, and third stories.
• A common Egyptian cubit near 20.6 inches makes 300 cubits about 515 feet. Shorter Mesopotamian cubits yield a shorter hull. Genesis does not name which cubit.
• Genesis 6:19–20Genesis 6:19–20 · King James Version^6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. ^6:20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.Genesis 6:19–20 · King James VersionOpen the Source speaks of two of every living thing after their kind. Genesis 7:2–3Genesis 7:2–3 · King James Version^7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. ^7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.Genesis 7:2–3 · King James VersionOpen the Source adds sevens of clean beasts and of birds. The text sorts by kind and by clean and unclean. It does not inventory modern species counts.
• Genesis 8:4Genesis 8:4 · King James VersionAnd the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.Genesis 8:4 · King James VersionOpen the Source says the ark rested “upon the mountains of Ararat,” plural in the King James. It does not name Greater Mount Ararat alone.
• Jesus compares the days of Noah to the coming of the Son of man in Matthew 24:37–39Matthew 24:37–39 · King James Version^24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ^24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, ^24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.Matthew 24:37–39 · King James VersionOpen the Source. 1 Peter 3:201 Peter 3:20 · King James VersionWhich sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.1 Peter 3:20 · King James VersionOpen the Source and 2 Peter 2:52 Peter 2:5 · King James VersionAnd spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;2 Peter 2:5 · King James VersionOpen the Source treat the flood as judgment in which eight souls were saved. See Was Noah’s Flood Global or Local?.
• Dating the flood is When Was Noah’s Flood?. Worldwide flood traditions are Flood Myths Around the World.

The Measures in Genesis 6

Genesis 6:15Genesis 6:15 · King James VersionAnd this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.Genesis 6:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source, King James Version: “And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.” Verse 16 adds a window finished to a cubit, a door in the side, and three stories.

A cubit is a forearm measure. Surviving Near Eastern standards vary. Writers who identify the Durupınar formation with the ark often use a long Egyptian cubit so that 300 cubits land near 515 feet, matching that landform’s length. That match is circumstantial. It does not, by itself, turn a rock formation into a wooden vessel. Genesis gives ratios: length six times the breadth, and ten times the height. Those ratios are what the text fixes. The modern foot length is an inference.

Genesis 6:14Genesis 6:14 · King James VersionMake thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.Genesis 6:14 · King James VersionOpen the Source says to make the ark of gopher wood and to pitch it within and without with pitch. The Hebrew word behind “gopher” is rare. The verse does not name a living tree species a modern botanist can check on Ararat.

Animals by Kinds

Genesis 6:19–20Genesis 6:19–20 · King James Version^6:19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. ^6:20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.Genesis 6:19–20 · King James VersionOpen the Source tells Noah to bring two of every living thing of all flesh, male and female, of fowls, cattle, and every creeping thing, after their kind. Genesis 7:2–3Genesis 7:2–3 · King James Version^7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. ^7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.Genesis 7:2–3 · King James VersionOpen the Source then distinguishes clean beasts taken by sevens and beasts that are not clean by twos, and birds by sevens. The clean and unclean sort is the sort the law will later name. The verse does not forbid a named species from entering.

Young-earth writers often argue that “kind” is broader than a modern species, so that the ark carried representative pairs from which later diversity came. Old-earth and local-flood writers often read the same verses as a regional judgment with a regional animal list. Both readings start from the same Hebrew. Neither reading is settled by counting zoo species against cubits. Capacity arguments that invent a full modern taxonomy and then declare the ark too small or large enough are answering a census Genesis does not print.

Mountains of Ararat

Genesis 8:4Genesis 8:4 · King James VersionAnd the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.Genesis 8:4 · King James VersionOpen the Source places the rest of the ark on the mountains of Ararat. The King James keeps the plural. Later searches have focused on Greater Mount Ararat, a volcanic peak in eastern Turkey, and on the Durupınar formation in the foothills nearby. The biblical phrase names a region. It does not hand a GPS pin to one summit or one mudflow. Has Noah’s Ark Been Found? states what those searches have and have not shown.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Big Was Noah’s Ark?

Genesis gives 300 by 50 by 30 cubits and three stories. In feet, the length is often given between roughly 450 and 515 feet, depending on the cubit. The text’s own numbers are the cubits.

How Did the Animals Fit on the Ark?

Genesis speaks of kinds and of clean and unclean, not of a Linnaean species list. Arguments about space turn on how broad “kind” is and on how much of the earth the flood is taken to cover. Was Noah’s Flood Global or Local? is that debate.

Did Jesus Mention Noah’s Ark?

Matthew 24:37–39Matthew 24:37–39 · King James Version^24:37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. ^24:38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, ^24:39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.Matthew 24:37–39 · King James VersionOpen the Source names the days of Noah, the eating and drinking, the marriage, and the flood that took them all away. It does not describe the vessel’s planks. 1 Peter 3:201 Peter 3:20 · King James VersionWhich sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.1 Peter 3:20 · King James VersionOpen the Source names the ark in which eight souls were saved by water.

Was Noah’s Ark Real?

Christians who read Genesis 6–9 as history say yes. Christians who read those chapters as a theological narrative set against Near Eastern flood poems still treat the ark as the story’s vessel. A boat-shaped rock is not required for either reading, and it has not been shown to be the ark. See Has Noah’s Ark Been Found?.

Keep Reading

Genesis 6 is the building chapter. When Was Noah’s Flood? is the date. Is There Evidence of a Worldwide Flood? is the geological claim. Noah (Nuh) in the Qur’an is the Islamic account.